I shall be cheerfully participating, probably in a wrap-around top, immodestly remaining in the workforce at seven months pregnant. If anyone is inspired to earthquake-causing adultery by the sight of me (at a time when my getting stuck between a desk and a door is a far more pressing matter than the depth of my cleavage), then truly my powers are even greater than those attributed to women in general by the cleric.

I'm certainly with you, Emma, on what I think of as the feminism of dress. I don't think we get anywhere by attacking the dress choices of individual women, since it's such a quick step from that to identifying adjacent events as the consequences of those choices, and thus conveniently stripping away the agency of other actors (like those who choose to commit sexual assault).

This photo essay puts the discussion in the context of women and breastfeeding, but makes a similar point with regard to modesty and individual choice. Let the woman decide her set-point herself.

I'd just come out of about two hours of reading comments. I was quite cross. Boy, are those close to me fucking sick of hearing about this.

Also, a while back, for some reason, I promised people I would go out for an evening showing absolutely no cleavage at all. Turned out my wardrobe was incapable of providing. OTOH, I do wish they'd done this at a slightly warmer time of year. Australians women are very happy, as Boobquake is a public holiday for them. We should be gleeful because, like every world-wide event, we'll be First to See the... Sun.

Another good excuse to wear a skirt and cycle

Ah, the answer to my frequent high-school problem of having to pull my skirt out of my gears: shorter skirts.

Briefly, this event was sparked by the comments of a senior Iranian cleric that;

It's not that I'm not in full support, merely that boobs for boob's sake trumps boobs for argument's sake. I hope it's warm enough and more importantly that there's no ill-timed earthquake to feed the ignorant minds, have fun!

I especially like that you point out the importance of what the participants get out of the event over the reaction of men (or whoever). Although somehow the same argument could not be made for Boobs on Bikes.

I think we need govt tv advertising about male ogling/stupid excuses for men behaving like dicks/psychopaths. Something like;

Although somehow the same argument could not be made for Boobs on Bikes.

Why not, and don't start on the road to choice versus exploitation. My tits and I would do what I felt like on the day/ whatever day I live in. If a person and their tits wants to drive down the road on the bike for a totally legal parade/ rally, who am I to argue? Why would I need to grant my permission, just as any person can wear what they like on this day in question.

I was thinking more along the lines of activism versus commercialism (boobs on bikes is advertising is it not?)

Which is totally fair enough, it IS different. But what Russell is referring to (I believe) is me pointing out that people were able to have long conversations about Boobs on Bikes without ever asking what the women involved thought or felt about it, robbing them of all agency over their own actions and all importance in the debate. So the point about making the reaction of the men of supreme value and not caring about the experience of the women stands in that instance as well.

There seems to be an awful lot of conflation of failing to conform to some arbitrary standard of modesty and dressing sexy in order to court the male gaze in some of that criticism.

I'm really glad that the women who felt their breasts were "too small" tended to get kindly responses but the underlying beliefs that those statements reflect are very sad - both that small breasts aren't worth showing off and that big breasts are inherently less modest.

Being a modestly (pun intended) sized woman (that means I'm in the same league as Keira Knightly, and I will be exceedingly RUDE to anyone who tries to commiserate with me about it, because actually, I'm very happy with my body), showing cleavage is a little ineffective, if not actually impossible. But I'm thinking tight jeans, and a lacy-is-it-see-through-or-isn't-it-and-perhaps-if-you-look-a-bit-harder-you-might-be-able-to-work-it-out-possibly-just-before-you-realise-that-it's-not-the-done-thing-to-go-around-staring-at-women's-breasts close fitting top, showing every proudly-earned post-baby roll.